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	Table of Contents
p. 9 of 22 BACK | NEXT Preface Executive Summary I. Introduction II. Development of the Policy Paper III. Education and Poverty Reduction IV. The Changing Context V. Experience of the Asian Development Bank A. Changing Nature of ADB Support B. Lessons Learned VI. Assistance Policies and Support for Education VII. Role of the Asian Development Bank VIII. Dimensions of the Education Policy IX. Education Policy Principles X. After the Policy Paper XI. Recommendation Appendixes

Policy on Education : V. Experience of the Asian Development Bank

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B. Lessons Learned

22. Many lessons have been learned from ADB’s experience in the education sector. Perhaps the most important is this: effective assistance must evolve, as the circumstances and needs of the nations of the region change. While this may be obvious, what is not so obvious is how the actual process of effecting this evolution is to be managed. Therein lies the principal purpose of a policy paper—to review changes, identify trends, project emerging issues, and link these to ADB’s own evolving strategic priorities.

23. ADB support for the education sector has not always given sufficient attention to lending within a carefully developed country education sector policy framework. Comprehensive sector work has not always formed the clear basis for determining ADB’s sector investment program. Historically, much of ADB’s investment has been on a project-focused basis, with relatively little attention to sector policy reforms designed to improve equity, efficiency, finance, and quality. This pattern, coupled with a tendency to dilute project investments across a range of subsectors without seeking to concentrate on priority subsectors for a sustained period of time, may well have diminished the impact of ADB investment on any particular subsector. ADB’s own sector evaluation studies have concluded that (i) many projects have been too complex in their design; (ii) investments have paid insufficient attention to addressing sector issues in a sustainable manner; (iii) a longer term view of sector development—supported by multiple, sequential interventions—needs to be taken; and (iv) project performance could often be improved through more intensive supervision of implementation. These lessons provide significant guidance for future investment: focused, based on sector reform, planned with a long-term view, and better monitored.

24. While ADB increasingly recognizes that education development must be based on sector reform guided by clear policy goals and strategies, the pattern of its lending modalities has not always reflected that awareness. Relatively little (although increasing) use has been made of program or SDP lending, both of which seek to support comprehensive education reform. ADB has in its education sector support tended not to take a longer term perspective, with a series of investments planned and targeted at selected aspects of reform. Instead, ADB has concentrated on individual project investments that may have successfully delivered the desired inputs, and achieved the desired outputs, without necessarily achieving lasting education sector reform, or even sustainability of project outputs.

25. Despite these lessons, ADB’s investment program in education has been largely successful in terms of individual projects achieving their particular targets. However, such investment could well have had greater impact on overall education sector development if it had been based more strongly on sector analysis, and targeted more intensively to support sustainable policy reforms that address key issues. The lessons learned from this experience can help formulate ADB education policy to be more proactive and flexible; to direct funding support more systematically to education sector development and reform; and to build stronger linkages with ADB’s own strategic objectives, articulated in the early 1990s.

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